...“Everyday Use” In the short story, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, we are introduced to two distinctly different views of the African-American culture. The story depicts the 1960ish life of Mama and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee. As we are introduced to this family, it is apparent immediately that Mama and Dee see their heritage as African-American women in two starkly differing ways. It is also apparent that neither Mama nor Dee appreciates the views or the societal stations of the other. Contrasting one against the other, we come to a very real conclusion; at the heart of their disdain for one another, is pride. In Mama, we experience the pride of self-sufficiency, of survival, and of her ancestry. In Dee, we witness the pride of elevation and of education. Dee also takes great pride in displaying her heritage rather than embracing it. Mama is a simple woman living a simple life. Simple does not mean easy. Although there is only a brief mention of the girls’ daddy, the impression is that Mama raised her children alone. She describes herself as a “…large big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands.” (Walker, 1126) As she goes on to describe the pleasure she takes in milking cows or slaughtering a pig for dinner, we are exhausted to think about the long hours she must put in from sun-up until sun-down to single-handedly support and care for her family. Although Mama lived a meager life, it is apparent that she wanted more for her daughter’s future. She...
Words: 899 - Pages: 4
...In the short story, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, Alice writes a touching and relatable story on how the evolution of tradition affected a relationship between two sisters. She describes the struggles that anyone can encounter while finding their point of view towards their culture. Even though Dee and Maggie were raised under the same household, they are very different. Dee and Maggie are different on how they interpret and express their culture through beliefs, actions and appearance. First of all, Dee and Maggie have different beliefs on the importance of the quilts. The quilts cause a big conflict towards the end due to the interest of both sisters. Maggie and Dee both want the quilts for their keeping. Originally, Mama was going to...
Words: 924 - Pages: 4
...Chris Themes of Everyday Use by Alice Walker In the Alice Walker’s story “Everyday Use”, two sisters portray their contrasting family views on what they perceive to be heritage. The idea is that a quilt is a part of this family's history. They aren't just parts of cloth put together to make a blanket. The quilt symbolizes their ancestors' lives and tells a story with every single inch of cloth. Understanding the reasoning of why the author wrote this story is very important; valuing the culture and traditions of your family is extremely meaningful. This is shown by the mother’s thoughts on the quilts, “Both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece about the size of a penny matchbox that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War. (367-368)"In the story, Walker presents Maggie, who is the younger sister, as an example of heritage in terms of passing it on through the generations with knowledge and respect. Maggie unlike her older sister knew how to sew and appreciated personally and emotionally on how much time and effort where put into the quilts whereas Dee sees the quilt valued only for financial and aesthetic reasons. Maggie and Dee have very different ideas about what constitutes their heritage and for Maggie, the family heirlooms are filled with the presence of the people who made and used them. Dee on the other hand is angered...
Words: 606 - Pages: 3
...“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker tells the story of a reunion between a mother and her somewhat rebellious daughter. Mama is a hard working woman with little money. With the help of her daughter Maggie the two run a small farm to get by. Maggie is a very obedient daughter and is the polar opposite of her sister Dee. Everything from their physical and mental nature to their spouses are different. Through Maggie, Alice Walker presents the audience with a clearer description of Dee. It can be seen that Dee is distant, and pretentious. The family has seemed to have gone through a lot. Mama indicated this when talking about the time their old house burned down. The house fire left Maggie with scars on her arms and legs as a result of her probably...
Words: 405 - Pages: 2
...it with dear life. In the case of Dee and Maggie, from the Alice Walker’s Everyday Use, Dee loses sight of her true heritage trying to conform to the telegraphic past of idealized Africa, while Maggie holds on to her heritage by remaining true to her immediate past. The short story begins with Dee coming home from college. Now, she is more informed about her heritage and beginning to conform to an image to fit the African culture....
Words: 767 - Pages: 4
...Everyday Use”, was published as short story collection written by Alice Walker. Walker’s novel represents the focus on women’s lives and interconnects of the past and present representing the protagonists that is portrayed as victims, variously manipulated and used by husbands and lovers, white society, or their own depleted self-esteem. This story had an unhappy ending with hard-won truths also the protagonist had confidence in defending her family’s legacy. In the time that the story is set, black American life and identity were undergoing the transformation of action from enduring slavery, violence, and discrimination that there after led to freedom, and “Everyday Use,” hinged on the tension created when the two worlds came together....
Words: 2065 - Pages: 9
...Personalities and ideas differ so much in people. In Everyday Use by Alice Walker provides us with a perfect example of this. Maggie and Dee, the two sisters in the story, have very different personalities and their idea of heritage is nowhere near the same. First, the youngest sister, Maggie is mostly reserved and independent. The reasons for this is because she is ashamed of the way she looks. Involved in a house fire, she was scarred and burned all over her body due to the fire. Although Maggie is the most caring and compassionate of the two sisters. Also, she lives at the new house with mom because she is not ready, or able to go live life by herself. Being as shy and unsociable as Maggie is, she does not talk to anyone or have any...
Words: 465 - Pages: 2
...In the short story “Everyday Use”, by Alice Walker the character named Dee or Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo values many different things. She values her education, fashion, and the trends at the time. Wangero shows that she values these things by how she acts, what she wears, and how she talks throughout the story. We see that Wangero values her education and knowledge when we are told about Wangero as a child. Wangero, or Dee at the time, would “read to use without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon use two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice” (Walker 63-65). During this point in Dee’s life she had no shame showing off her education and she knew what she was going to do with her knowledge. She “wanted...
Words: 331 - Pages: 2
...“ A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people”- Mahatma Gandhi. No matter where you are, you always should know where you came from. There were two stories that were read about cultural heritage. One was a short story titled “ Everyday Use” by Alice Walker that was about how there were two girls, sisters who wanted a quilt because it reflected on their heritage, but one wanted the quilt to symbolize as a trophy; while the other sister wanted the quilt just to use for everyday use. The second text that was read was a personal essay named “ Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee that was about two Indian girls who moved to America, and one became an American citizen, while the other was just a legal immigrant, so they both had different perspectives of America. Life experiences can easily change a person’s customs in life. Even though Dee and Mari embraced their heritage or assimilated to a new culture; they both still overall care for their culture....
Words: 583 - Pages: 3
...Family relationships are an important piece in many works of literature. In particular, this plays an important role in the three short stories “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The varying levels of love and care provided by the parents, and the attitude that is projected back by the child in response is what moves the plot forward and provides details for bigger themes in many literary pieces. In the short story “Everyday Use,” Mama doubles as the narrator and the reader sees things through her point of view. She has two daughters; Dee is the oldest and Maggie is the youngest. Dee has moved out of the house and changed her way of life drastically; she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo...
Words: 867 - Pages: 4
...Everyday Use by Alice Walker is a story about a dysfunctional family, despite a mother’s best efforts to keep the family united. This is a story about an individual named Dee, who is fortunate enough to attend school in Augusta because the community raised enough funds to pay for her education. Dee shows no appreciation for anyone. Instead, she occasionally returns to her hometown to express her disgust towards Mama, and also collects “souvenirs” to bring back home. Her actions are a reflection of her despicable character because she does not realize how fortunate she is. Her sister, Maggie, was burned from a house fire, leaving scars on her body. Because of this incident, Maggie is suffering from great trauma, whereas Dee is living an “easy”...
Words: 2502 - Pages: 11
...Jake Marshall English 1302-25 2-27-12 Jake Marshall English 1302 – 25 27 February Skewed Point of View In Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” the point of view of the story is told through the eye's of Mama Johnson to help point out the struggle between the preservation of her heritage and the living of it. This limited omniscient point of view not only showcases Walker's ability to subliminally influence us to take sides for Mama and her youngest daughter Maggie, but to also show the inherent struggle between the families everyday perception of objects that Mama's oldest daughter Dee sees as something to be maintained and cherished for as along as possible. The point of view through Mama's eyes accentuates the innocent eye point of view by showing her naivety and simplicity to the outside world that Dee has always so thrived in and her lack of ability to understand old heirlooms that she would see preserved to keep the heritage alive she lives everyday. Mama Johnson is first presented immediately as someone who can be trusted through her knowledge of things presented to her firstly by describing her misfortunate youngest daughter Maggie by saying “She is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passed her by,” as well as stating she “was never a good singer” and “never could carry a tune” (Alice 163). These blunt observations helps the reader trust what Mama Johnson says because they are things personally significant to her and personal within her life and about...
Words: 756 - Pages: 4
...Edgar Hernandez Professor Ali ENC 1102 March 20, 2014 Amy Tan's, “Mother Tongue” and Alice Walker's “Everyday Use” both share similar traits in their writings of these two short stories. “Mother Tongue” revolves around the experiences Tan and her mother had due to her mother's English speaking limitations, she also revolves her story around the relationship of a mother and daughter. Alice walker on the other hand writes a story narrated by “Mama” the mother of two daughters Maggie and Dee and explains the conflicting relationship she has with Dee, both writers similarly emphasize on the relationships these mother and daughter characters had and they unravel both short stories based on these relationships. Although both short stories share this one similar characteristic it is clear that both writers have opposite point of views of their described mother daughter relationships. To begin comparing, both Tan and Walker use the characters of mother and daughter to evoke the importance the relationship plays in the telling of the story. There are similarities that both these characters share. One of these similarities are shown through the use of words that describe a similar feeling of shame or embarrassment both Dee and Tan have towards there mothers at some point in the stories. In one part of the story Tan describes feeling “ashamed” of her mother's broken English (Tan 345). Walker also shows the character Dee having some sense of shame of her mother and sister Maggie by...
Words: 1417 - Pages: 6
...Heritage is about family and caring about each other; it’s about the importance of family coming together as one. In the poem "my mother placed quilts" by Teresa Acosta and the short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, both author's use imagery and figurative language to establish the quilt as a symbol for family heritage to illustrate their themes. Alice Walker uses the family heritage as a symbol for "Everyday Use" to represent the respect and appreciation of a family heritage. "She talked a blue streak over the sweet potatoes" (pg62). Alice Walker uses imagery to describe how she felt about the potatoes. "She gasped like a bee had stung her” (pg64). The author shows that Dee was shocked that her mom would give the quilts to Maggie instead of her. She acted this way because she didn't get what she wanted for the first time ever. "I could almost hear the sound her feet made as they scraped over each other" (pg64). This shows the level of tension in the room; the smallest sound in the room is the loudest. In Teresa Acosta’s poem “my mother pieced quilts,” Acosta uses imagery and figurative language to establish the quilt as a symbol a mother’s love. Acosta observes all the shapes and patterns her mother displays on the quilt. Astounded at “how she shaped patterns square and oblong and round”...
Words: 406 - Pages: 2
...2013 Alice Walker Section 1 Biography According to Michael Mayer, Alice Walker, one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the United States, was born in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eighth and last child of Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker. Her parents were sharecroppers, and money was not always available as needed. At the tender age of eight, Walker lost sight of one eye when one of her older brothers shot her with a BB gun by accident. This left her in somewhat a depression, and she secluded herself from the other children. Walker felt like she was no longer a little girl because of the traumatic experience she had undergone, and she was filled with shame because she thought she was unpleasant to look at. During this seclusion from other kids of her age, Walker began to write poems. Hence, her career as a writer began. Walker found the love of her life in 1967, a white activist civil rights lawyer named Mel Leventhal, and they married him in 1967. A year later she gave birth to their daughter, Rebecca. It was not until she began teaching that her writing career really took off. She began teaching at Jackson State, then Tougaloo, and finally at Wellesley College. Walker was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and spoke for the women’s movement, the anti-apartheid movement, for the anti-nuclear movement, and against female genital mutilation. She also started her own publishing company: “The Wild Trees Press”, in 1984. Walker refused...
Words: 2381 - Pages: 10
